Top 10 Pokemon conspiracy theories

It’s been a while since I’ve done a Pokemon post XD With the newest generation of Pokemon games scheduled to come out later this year, and news of new pokemon and other features slowly trickling in, I’ve surprisingly been feeling nostalgic about the old Pokemon days of Red/Blue and Gold/Silver. As much as I continue to love every new game that comes out, I must admit that there was a unique charm to the years of the old generations when the Internet, as well as the Pokemon franchise itself, were much younger…as were we. And while I was idly browsing the web a few days ago, I found that quite a number of conspiracy theories came out of that younger generation that will surprisingly leave you pondering…

There are a ton of Pokemon theories floating around so I decided to pick ten that I thought were the best (they’re not listed in any particular order). Most of them have to do with the old generations though some are newer or cover any generation. And I’m obligated to say that I didn’t come up with any of these theories ;)

1. Is Ditto a failed attempt at cloning Mew?

We’ll start off with a relatively simple theory. This one comes about because of the subtle similarities these two pokemon have. They’re both genderless, have the same weight, and the same pink color scheme. Even their shiny forms are the same color (as seen in the above image). They can both potentially use the attacks of every other pokemon in the game, and although Ditto can only do so by using Transform on another pokemon, Mew is the only other pokemon besides Ditto that even learns Transform. Mew is supposedly the ancestor of all pokemon and shares all of their DNA, while Ditto has the strange ability to breed with every breedable pokemon. And lastly, one of the few places that wild Ditto can be found is in Cinnabar Mansion, where experiments on cloning Mew (which eventually led to the creation of Mewtwo) were done!

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2. Ash’s coma

This is a great theory and whoever came up with it really elaborated. The idea behind the theory is that after Pikachu let out that enormous electric attack back in episode 1 of the Pokemon anime that zapped the Spearow as well as Ash, everything that happened in the show these 700+ episodes later all takes place within Ash’s mind after he suffered a coma from the attack. It explains why he and the other characters never age and why everything in the Pokemon world, as vast as it is, seems so idealistic compared to reality. It’s quite Freudian in that it explains what all the characters in the show represent to Ash’s psyche. The theory is really extensive so instead of pasting it all here, you can read it in full by clicking this link if it sounds interesting to you.

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3. Did the player in Pokemon Red/Blue kill the rival’s Raticate?

There are a ton of Pokemon theories and creepypasta that revolve around Lavender Town, that small town with eerie music in the original games that had a cemetery in a tower inhabited by Ghost pokemon. This is probably my favorite of Lavender Town-related story. The image below explains it.

Wow, the protagonist of Red/Blue seems like quite a douchebag after reading that, huh?

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4. Is Gengar Clefable’s shadow?

This is a pretty popular theory with a lot of fan art. It came about because these two seemingly unrelated pokemon are very similar in terms of body shape, physical features, and even a similar weight. Gengar is classified as a Shadow pokemon and its name is derived from “doppelganger.” The two also have types, Normal and Ghost, that cancel each other out. It’s a good theory but what I wonder about is where does that leave these two pokemons’ pre-evolutions, Clefa, Clefairy, Gastly, and Haunter?

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5. Do all pokemon have Stockholm Syndrome?

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6. History of the Pokemon world

I pasted this one below because it’s not terribly long but would be too hard to explain in a brief paragraph. It does offer quite an interesting theory as to why pokemon are the way they are, and why regions in the Pokemon world are based off of regions in real-world Japan. Personally, I prefer this history of the Pokemon world =P

January 22, 2027: Dr. Hagiru Sato and his team of scientists from Japan, America, Canada, and Britain begin work on a matter-energy transference machine.

February 11, 2030: First machine is tested successfully after over a hundred failed tests. Controversy over the destructive nature of the technology ignites.

December 21, 2032: A catastrophic incident with an energy-matter machine destroys the city of Hiroshima, in devastation not seen since the atomic bombs were dropped nearly 90 years prior. Japanese government officials move to ban work on the technology, though Western powers urge them to allow it, despite the mishap.

April 22, 2035: First sighting of infected individuals. Most are animals; some humans are also shown to be susceptible to infection. Most seen around the ruins of Hiroshima, which had not been rebuilt.

May 13, 2035: Northern Japan is split off from its Southern half, as a nation-wide quarantine is enacted. Anarchy soon spreads through the infection regions. 15% of humans exposed to the disease are immune, no side effect. 84.9% are affected fatally by the disease, which causes cancerous-growths. .1% of those exposed are shown to successfully mutate. The “virus” is found to be a spreadable corruption of genetic material, which causes rapid mutation in infected individuals. All large animal life above ground is soon infected.

January 1, 2040: 98% of all animals in Japan are wiped out, ecosystems ruled entirely by infected individuals.

May 8, 2048: Japanese Defense Force engages infected individuals to preserve quarantine. Coordinated attacks by infected humans and animals are seen. High levels of intelligence confirmed.

May 10, 2048: They fail, and the nation of Japan ceases to exist.

October 13, 2048: The United States Carrier George W. Bush is attacked and sunk by an unknown force. Later revealed to be a coordinated assault by the infected. Use of atomic weapons to destroy all life on Japan considered, but denied.

February 12, 2052: Remaining inhabitants of Japan have appeared, by outward observers, to begin adopting the infected into their religions. Part of this religion is a total weapons bad, and the banning of violence against infected individuals. This is surprisingly effective at ceasing conflict with infected individuals.

April 2, 2055: Infected seen to have spread to North America. Military preparedness results in a far more contained infection. Hundreds of thousands in the United States, Canada, and Mexico die.

March 11, 2061: The United States Army begins experimenting with the combat prowess of infected animals, which are shown to have a friendly connection to humans who treat them well, much like dogs. Initial tests exceed expectations. Later that same year, China, Russia, Vietnam, and N. Korea react by signing the Kommu Pact, ensuring protection against the now utterly overpowered West.

July 2, 2063: The Kommu alliance declares war on the United States. Infected used to great effect.

November 9, 2066: War end. Communist states dissolved, China and Russia (and all of Asia) are now under the jurisdiction of the NATO.

December 25, 2072: The regions, now divided, that were once Japan begin to open up to the outside world. Mostly through scientific trade off.

February 1, 2081: Japanese scientists sneak into heavily infected Brazil. They recover the DNA of one of the individuals believed to be one of the first infected.

Beliefs are that the infected are actually the next phase in evolution, and to find one of the originals would better help the understanding. There are many tried and failed cloning attempts, before a final experiment is successful. The result of this experiment, capable of self-induced Energy-Matter transference, is responsible for the deaths of dozens before escaping.

May 22, 2081: Ash Ketchum turns 10 years old.

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7. Mixed up evolutions/names

The images below speak for themselves =)

What’s interesting is that in the Japanese version, Golduck has the same name while Psyduck’s name is Koduck (“ko” meaning “child” or “small”). Still weird that Golduck has that name when Psyduck’s the gold colored one.

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8. Munna reference in Pokemon Red/Blue

You have to wonder if the creators remembered this NPC dialogue from over ten years ago when they made Munna for Pokemon Black and White.

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9. Kangaskhan is Cubone’s mother

This theory cropped up due to the physical similarities between Cubone and a baby Kangaskhan. The idea is that originally the baby Kangaskhan was supposed to evolve into Cubone. Cubone’s pokedex entry states that it wears the skull of its deceased mother. The story goes that if a Kangaskhan mother dies, the baby will wear her skull and use her bones as its weapon, thus evolving into Cubone. The Cubone would then evolve into Marowak and (female) Marowak would evolve into Kangaskhan, continuing the cycle. There’s also the fact that both boomerangs (how Cubone and Marowak use their bone weapons) and kangaroos (what Kangaskhan is based on) both have an Australian theme. The theory goes on to state that the reason Kangaskhan became a completely unrelated pokemon in the end was because the creators thought the idea of having the baby wear its dead mother’s skull was too morbid for a kids game (even though Cubone’s pokedex entries still talk about that). So they had to rewrite the game code and delete the old code for Marowak evolving into Kangaskhan…but the code wasn’t fully deleted and instead became the glitch pokemon ‘M, which actually can evolve into Kangaskhan. Someone made a nice evolution chart for how their evolution might have been.

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10. N is a Zoroark

One of the newer theories, this one has to do with not only the fact that N has a similar hairstyle as Zoroark and can somehow understand pokemon speech, but because of a couple of events in the games; once you get the Memory Link in Pokemon Black 2 or White 2, Zoroark will show you a flashback involving N but Zoroark is not present in the memory…so how would it know what happened? And also, when following Zoroark into N’s castle the Zoroark suddenly disappears and N is there instead. Since Zoroark’s ability is Illusion, being able to take on another’s form, I suppose it’s possible that N is a Zoroark that someone gained the ability to speak in human language (N does actually speak faster than the other characters in the game).

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Hope you guys enjoyed these and I’ll be back next week, most likely with my first impressions of the spring anime I’ve started watching =D

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Wow, those are some interesting theories indeed o.o The history of the pokemon world theory seems almost more like a zombie apocalypse story lol!
The Ash’s Coma theory actually sounds very applicable, would be nice to get an explanation as to why none of them ever age =P

Actually, there’s another “Ash’s Age” theory that follows the idea of every episode of Pokemon roughly covering one day, maybe two. Multiply that by how many total episodes there are, and it’s only been about two years since the start of the show, so he hasn’t aged that much XD

That and th fact that even if his whole journey took four years, hed still be only fourteen. He started at ten, which is pretty young, think of the “new” trainers in all the games that just got their pokemon in comparasin to you and your rival by the time you meet them. You do seem older, so id say the shows pretty age accurate.

In the Anime, they do reference the passage of time. Just in the Johto series, for the Water Pokemon Championships or something, when Ash and friends arrive at the Whirl Islands or wherever, they state that the water tournament is 3 months away. Over the next several episodes, they waste time around the islands training for this tournament, and then the tournament arrives. So, in 4 or 5 episodes, they elapse 3 months.

Also, I do believe that, in the first season, after Ash receives his 8th gym badge, it’s stated that the Indigo League starts in roughly a month, so Ash starts training Pikachu, and then lo and behold the tournament starts an episode later, elapsing 1 month in 1 episode.

Other times throughout the anime they reference days, weeks, or even months passing, but never do they seem to mark years.

Actually, although it is a very well thought out, this theory runs into a few potholes. For one, part of the theory is that it is the coma which causes Team Rocket to seem less menacing, but, Team Rocket does not appear until episode 2, so they shouldn’t need to become “less menacing” if they shouldn’t be there to begin with. Another part if this conspiracy is that the coma is the reason every nurse and police officer looks the same, but, as the show has stated, all the nurses and police look the same because they are all related, and the names Joy and Jenny are the family names. Also, Ash doesn’t meet Brock until later in the series as well, so Brock shouldn’t be there either. Really, the only people who have any business being there (Providing the theory is true,) should be Ash’s mom, Prof. Oak, Gary, and Misty, because they were all met before the lightning strike. Also, being struck by lightning does not cause you to go into a coma, but a cataleptic state. Although it is an interesting theory and I applaud the creator, there are just too many flaws for me to consider it. As for Ash not growing older, well, I would just call it consistency problems.

A lot of these theories could actually be applicable. Though the Ash’s Coma theory was quite disturbing. While its plausible, I found it disturbing that someone took the time to study Pokémon to the extent that they could label every character with a ten-year olds confused psyche; it like overanalysing a story.

I think most of these theories are pretty applicable too. And yeah, a lot of detail went into that Ash’s Coma theory…too much creepy detail that it kinda alienates itself from the overall feel of Pokemon. Still interesting though =P

I feel as though maybe all of these theories have applicable properties. I could definitely see Game Freak and the creators of Pokemon putting this kind of depth and detail into every facet of their games, which would make the story that they are telling about humanity that much more appealing. It would explain why Pokemon has gone so strong for over 20 years. I certainly put that kind of effort into the games I make.

Although I’m not invested into the Pokemon world, the Ash’s Coma theory is an interesting read, lol. Some parts are a bit funny, some disturbing. I also find it somehow funny that some of the other theories had almost the same effect as the Ash’s Coma theory, turning a good, idealistic anime like Pokemon into something dark and disturbing.

That’s why it’s kinda hard to take the theories seriously, as anything more than just a “could have been” idea – they’re too disturbing to imagine that the original creators intended such things for a children’s game. So I’m inclined to believe the less extreme ones, like #1 and #8 on the post.

Even though they are just theories, #3 strikes me as quite plausibly intended by the creators. From what I have seen on Japanese horror, they do not usually make the horror theme obvious like in Hollywood, but rather illustrate the horrors of everyday situations that we take for granted . . . As a result, their horror seems to have a purpose, which is to encourage the viewer to become more understanding and empathetic by showing them the very real mistakes that no human being is inherently protected from. Therefore, to show the main character of Red/Blue as a much more accurate portrayal of a selfish jerk really illustrates the danger in viewing ourselves as the “main character” in our own story, a phenomenon that is appropriately called “egoism” . . .

Egoism gives us the unwarranted belief that we are somehow superior because we are the “main character” from our own perspective, and therefore are more deserving than others – a kind of outlook that is so rampant in video games where people walk casually into others’ houses to steal from them, or take others’ glory, or crush their dreams to satisfy the main character’s own. Of course, it is quite rampant in real life, too, where everybody thinks that they are the main star of their own show, so games like this which manage to show egoism’s true face seem super creepy when the realization first dawns on us . . . but really it is just the realization of the power that egoism has which is the real horror, since it is the horror of seeing ourselves from a potentially more accurate perspective.

Damn, I love Japanese horror. Hits the mark so well. No wonder they are a much more respectful culture. Won’t comment on the creepy, tentacle-rapey bits, though, since I have no idea where that came from, hahaha.

My pokemon knowledge ends at R/S/E, so I have no idea what a Zoroark is, but anime Meowth showed that some extremely motivated pokemon might be amble to master human speech. Honestly, it seems odd that some super intelligent pokemon (Alakazam etc.) can’t speak in several tongues.

Also, the Giovanni is Ash’s father theory was quite popular back in the day xD.

A lot of pokemon, in the anime at least, have been shown to speak human language (usually psychically…Meowth may be the only one who doesn’t speak via some kind of telekinetic power). So that ability doesn’t really make Zoroark stand out as much as its other characteristics, like its Illusion ability and the fact that it has similar hair as N.

LOL, I remember the “Giovanni is Ash’s father” theory XD I personally could never understand it as there isn’t much evidence. I always thought there was more evidence that Prof. Oak was Ash’s father since he was always seen hanging out with Ash’s mother XD

Thinking back on it all… and rereading these theories… I personally wouldn’t think Oak is Ash’s father… but…
Looking between Ash and gary there are a few resemblances. Not to mention: Gary who is presumably a tad older than Ash refers to Oak as grandpa. Wouldn’t this make Oak a touch too old to be Ash’s father? But what about grandfather? Gary you never see a family for, but Ash you see a mother but no father.

Perhaps Gary’s parents divorced because Gary’s father (oak’s son) had a fling with Ash’s mom. Subconsciously Gary may have felt this, I would assume Ash’s father didn’t leave for a year or so after the divorce. Now add in that Oak pretty much raised Gary because their father wanted to keep the affair hush hush. So the only people who know are Oak, Ash’s mom, and their dad. Gary’s mom would have no idea about Ash, having known only about the affair.

To figure for the absence of the father that isn’t as extreme as death: After the divorce Gary’s father was filled with some depression. Because of this he left Pallet town to clear his mind and continue his father’s (oak’s) work. He left Gary with Oak and asked Oak to keep an eye on Ash and his mother. This is why Oak is frequently seen with Ash’s mom. Gary and Ash are half brothers.

TL:DR: It is late and I felt like coming up with my own theory on the grounds that Oak is old and what have you. Personally I find this more believable than Oak being Ash’s dad.

Loved reading this post! Always interesting to read about things I probably would have never thought of.

Another conspiracy theory I’ve heard has to do with if the people in this world eat Pokemon. There are scenes where the characters are shown to be eating meat and yet there hasn’t ever been signs of “normal animals” living in their world, so what meat could they be eating?
It’s more of a fun one I guess, but I figured you may be interested :)

I’ve heard theories about animals and meat-eating in the Pokemon world. This article on Bulbapedia actually discusses it to some extent. As far as eating actual animals though, the food I’ve seen in the anime and games seems to be vegetarian…or could be even it resembles something with meat. You are right that there are some scenes in the anime where the characters are indeed eating meat…I remember one scene where they were definitely eating fish. But if I recall correctly, all such scenes were from the old season 1 episodes when the Pokemon world in general was depicted as a bit “harsher” than it is now and most likely the creators were still working out how exactly to portray the world and didn’t take things like that into account yet. Interestingly though, certain Poke-dex entries in the games do say things that refer to people eating that pokemon, like how delicious it is…weird. Maybe eating pokemon does exist, but it’s something looked down upon by the general populace.

Also, even though humans don’t seem to eat pokemon, a lot of Poke-dex entries in the games talk about pokemon eating other pokemon, or “prey.”

I really don’t think that there’s a single major fandom that doesn’t have a coma/hallucination fan theory. Ever since the Rugrats Theory popularised it years and years ago, it’s been there in just about every fandom – My Little Pony is all Pinkie Pie’s hallucinations on her rock farm; Doctor Who is all a mental patient’s fantasy; Star Trek, Fullmetal Alchemist, Naruto, One Piece, Bleach – they’ve all got the same theories attached!

The Rugrats Theory is basically that the babies were all a figment of Angelicas’ imagination and were actually miscarried or aborted children. Then in “All Grown Up” She took hallucination inducing drugs so she could play with the older versions of the children. “All Grown Up” was cancelled because Angellica had O.D.’d

The theory about the “protagonist” of Red/Blue is so creepy! It makes the player character the so-called rival’s antagonist, doesn’t it? Even though the game focuses on the Ash-type character, who would you be rooting for after reading that sad, sad story?

:-(

Goes to show that people who form imaginary rivalries in their heads become utter douchebags, meanwhile the real people are just doing it for friendship or to prove to themselves that they have what it takes. Does the rival ever even refer to himself as such, or is it just in the egotist’s head??